Filmmaker’s Choice: Selecting Perfect Lenses for YouTube Creation

A Vlogger’s Guide To Camera Lenses

Richard Bennett

Nov 01, 2022• Proven solutions

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The staple of any vlog is the talking headshot, a shot of the speaker talking directly to the audience. You can compose this shot with different kinds of lenses for your interchangeable lens camera.

But which kind of lens is the right lens for you as a vlogger?

In this article, I’m going to help you figure that out.

• Part 1: Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto
• Part 2: Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group
• Part 3: Crop Factor
• Part 4: Focal Length Equivalency Table
• Part 5: Aperture
• Part 6: Vlogging With a Fast Lens
• Part 7: Optical Image Stabilization

Three Focal Length Groups: Wide, Standard, Telephoto

There are three main ranges in focal lengths that camera lenses can be categorized into wide, standard, and telephoto.

Wide-Angle Lens

Wide-angle lenses can “see more.” They allow more of your scene to fit inside your frame. Objects that are closer to the lens appear much bigger while objects that are further away appear even smaller. Perspectives are also enhanced, making close objects and people that just make it into the sides of the frame appear more stretched out. Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, wide-angle lenses will appear the least zoomed in.

Standard Lens

With standard lenses or normal lenses, you won’t get the stretched out objects or enhanced perspectives that you get from wide-angle lenses. Instead, standard lenses are meant to see scenes as the natural human eye is meant to see them. If you shoot a scene with both a wide-angle lens and a standard lens from the same position, you’ll notice that less of the scene fits into your frame. Standard lenses will appear more zoomed-in than wide-angle lenses, but less zoomed-in than telephoto lenses.

Telephoto Lens

Out of all the other ranges in focal lengths, telephoto lenses will appear the most zoomed in. This can be beneficial for the shooter who wants to get a closer shot of a scene without having to physically be in close proximity to the scene. Objects that are further away in the background also appear larger and closer than they would appear on wide-angle or standard lenses.

Vlogging With Each Focal Length Group

You can get your talking head footage using lenses from any of the three focal length groups. Depending on how you plan to vlog most of the time, though, one of the three focal lengths might be more suitable for you.

When to vlog with a wide-angle lens

Wide-angle lenses are the most commonly used lenses for vlogging. Wide-angle lenses are great when you need to be close to your camera. This might be the case for you if your recording space is small or if you want to film yourself as you hold your camera up with your own hand.

Being close to your camera not only gives you the option to use your camera’s built-in microphone, but it also gives you the option to make use of camera-mounted shotgun microphones.

When to vlog with a standard lens

Standard lenses are great when you have more space to be further away from your camera. The perspectives in your shot will look more natural through a standard lens, making your talking head footage feel more corporate or professional. You’ll also be able to get blurrier backgrounds using a standard lens versus a wide-angle lens.

Being further away from your camera, however, means that you’ll have to use a separate microphone positioned closer to you.

When to vlog with a telephoto lens

As telephoto lenses are even more zoomed in, you’ll need to be even further away from your camera to fit yourself inside your camera frame. Why would any vlogger ever need to be that far away from their camera? One word… teleprompter. If you want or need to stick to a script, you’ll have to be far away enough from your camera that it doesn’t appear like your eyes are scanning left to right. You then close in the distance with a telephoto lens.

In the above video, Marcos Rocha compares different focal lengths for talking head videos. Which focal length range do you like the look of?

Crop Factor

Focal lengths in camera lenses are measured in millimeters. You can vlog yourself handheld with a 24mm lens on a camera with a full-frame sensor (the sensor is the piece of hardware inside your camera that turns the light it receives into a digital image). But if you use a 24mm lens on a camera with a smaller sensor, like an APS-C sensor or even smaller Micro 4/3 sensor, more of you will get cropped out (see below).

In order to make up for the cropping that occurs, you will need to use a wider lens on cameras with smaller sensors to get the same shot you’d get with a full-frame camera.

Focal Length Equivalency Table

This table shows you the focal lengths needed to achieve the same shot between cameras with different sensor sizes. In order to take a shot as wide as the shot I took of myself with the 24mm lens on my full-frame camera, I would need a 15mm lens on an APS-C sensor camera or a 12mm lens on a micro 4/3 camera.

Aperture

The next thing to consider when you’re looking for a lens is the aperture, the hole (often adjustable) within the lens that lets light in. Aperture for camera lenses is measured in f-stops (f/1.4, f/1.8, f/2.0) - the smaller the f-stop number, the larger the aperture (bigger hole letting even more light in).

Because larger aperture lenses let more light in, they need a shorter time for cameras to compose an image. This is why larger aperture lenses are also called “fast” lenses.

Fast lenses are more expensive because they cost more to produce. There’s a lot more that goes into them, including larger and higher quality glass elements.

But do you even need a fast lens?

Vlogging With a Fast Lens

Pros of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• Better low-light performance
• Better autofocus performance
• Better “bokeh” (out-of-focus areas, like your background, having that nice blurry look that you see in a lot of movies)

Cons of Vlogging With a Fast Lens

• More expensive
• Moving subjects more likely to get out of focus when shooting with a large aperture
• Better continuous autofocus performance needed when shooting moving subjects with a large aperture

Optical Image Stabilization

Finally, you’ll have to decide whether or not you want your lens to have built-in optical image stabilization (OIS).

OIS is very beneficial to have on a lens if you’re a vlogger who films mostly handheld footage. Although this technology adds to the price of your lens as well, it can greatly help you to capture smoother footage that may otherwise be shaky. Nikon calls this technology “Vibration Reduction” (VR) for their lenses.

In the above video, you can see how much OIS can help to stabilize your footage. MicBergsma simultaneously compares the footage between two GoPro Hero5 Blacks, one with OIS on and one with OIS off.

If, however, you are shooting most of your vlogs on a tripod, you won’t need a lens with OIS.

Looking for ways to set up your talking-head shot for YouTube with any of these lenses? Check out our post on 4 Ways To Set Up Your Talking-Head Shots For YouTube .

Richard Bennett

Richard Bennett is a writer and a lover of all things video.

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Elevate Your YouTube Gaming Content With Key FreeFire Hashtags

Are you a YouTube gaming streamer looking for the right hashtags for FreeFiree - a popular mobile game with millions of players worldwide? The right hashtag can help you reach a larger audience and make more people see your videos.

If yes, please read this article furtherly. We’ll provide you with a list of the 30 best FreeFire hashtags for YouTube and valuable tips to make your content more engaging.

Without any delay, let’s hit the road directly!

Best 30 FreeFire Hashtags In 2024

To make things easier and help you get started, we’ve compiled a list of the 30 best FreeFire hashtags for YouTube gaming videos. These tags are the most popular ones in 2024. It can aid you in reaching a wider audience and getting your clips seen by more people interested in this game.

1. #freefire - ranked 100 on the Kparser tool
2. #freefirelinggo - ranked 67 on the Kparser tool
3. #freefirebrasil - rated 91% on the best-hashtags platform
4. #freefirememe
5. #garena
6. #freefirenews
7. #freefireyoutubegaming
8. #freefireyoutubegamer
9. #freefiregame
10. #freefiregarena
11. #garenaff
12. #lasgrandes
13. #freefiremobile
14. #garenafreefireindonesia
15. #freefirebooyah
16. #freefiresquad
17. #freefirestudio
18. #freefireshare
19. #garenafreefireofficial
20. #garenafreefirelive
21. #alphafreefire
22. #freefirebattleground
23. #freefiretournament
24. #freefirebgid
25. #freefiresquad
26. #gaming
27. #mobilelegends
28. #freefirebr
29. #garena
30. #freefirehack

How To Optimize your YouTube Tags To Win More Views

Tags are one of the most important aspects of YouTube videos, yet creators often need to pay more attention to them. This is because YouTube uses them to categorize and organize videos and play a significant role in determining which videos are shown to which viewers.

So, if you want to reach the right audiences and get viral quickly, keep these things in mind when optimizing your YouTube tags, such as using relevant keywords, using all 500 characters, and avoiding duplicate tags.

Your gameplay footage will likely do most of the heavy lifting in terms of getting you in front of your target viewers, but there’s a reason why FreeFire tags are gaining so much popularity. These tags allow you to get in front of specific types of viewers and make it easier for people who are only interested in the gaming content you offer.

Give them a shot and see if they can help you take your gaming channel on YouTube to the next level. To learn more about YouTube tags and the tips and tricks for adding them to your videos, click here!

Bonus: Improve Your Gaming Recording Video With Filmora

If you’re a gamer who likes to record your gameplay and share with friends or build up a following on YouTube, then you know that getting high-quality videos is essential.

Fortunately, Filmora is there to assist you in creating engaging and eye-capturing gaming videos.

Here are some advanced features of Wonderdahre Filmora that can help you improve your gaming recording video:

Screen Recorder: With its screen recorder, you can simultaneously record your gaming screen and webcam. Additionally, you can show the mouse while recording and set the Frame Rate, Quality, and Record Timer.

Audio Ducking: Audio ducking lets you automatically lower the volume of background noise in your gaming videos when someone is speaking and is a great way to ensure that your audio is always clear and easy to understand.

Speed Ramping: Speed ramping features allow you to change the speed of your gaming videos at different points and add excitement or drama for your viewers.

Export: When exporting, you can share your finished project directly to YouTube with just a few clicks. Besides that, you can save it on your device or phone.

With these features and tools in Filmora , you can create a video that instantly grabs the viewers’ attention and keeps them engaged till the end.
So, what are you waiting for? Get started using Filmora for your YouTube gaming video editing needs!

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Conclusion

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve compiled a complete list of the 30 best gaming tags for YouTube FreeFire to help you reach a bigger audience. We’ve also provided some tips to improve your gaming recording and optimize your YouTube tags.

The hashtags and tips discussed should help you formulate your strategy when gunning for the top in the YouTube gaming world. Of course, in the end, your skill as a gamer will determine how fast you can gain subscribers, but these suggestions will aid you in getting there much quicker.

Hopefully, this article helped resolve your query, and you can now use the right hashtags for YouTube gaming videos.

With these features and tools in Filmora , you can create a video that instantly grabs the viewers’ attention and keeps them engaged till the end.
So, what are you waiting for? Get started using Filmora for your YouTube gaming video editing needs!

Free Download For Win 7 or later(64-bit)

Free Download For macOS 10.14 or later

Conclusion

In this comprehensive guide, we’ve compiled a complete list of the 30 best gaming tags for YouTube FreeFire to help you reach a bigger audience. We’ve also provided some tips to improve your gaming recording and optimize your YouTube tags.

The hashtags and tips discussed should help you formulate your strategy when gunning for the top in the YouTube gaming world. Of course, in the end, your skill as a gamer will determine how fast you can gain subscribers, but these suggestions will aid you in getting there much quicker.

Hopefully, this article helped resolve your query, and you can now use the right hashtags for YouTube gaming videos.